Violence along the border cities of Tamaulipas continues to rage on. Over the weekend two additional firefights brought the death toll to 18 cartel gunmen being killed by military forces in eight days. A Cuban gunman was found dead at the scene of one shootout while another was from Sinaloa.

Last Saturday, Mexican Marines killed seven cartel gunmen just south of the border town of Nueva Ciudad Guerrero, information provided to Breitbart Texas by the Tamaulipas government revealed. The shootout took place when a convoy of marines was patrolling a highway not far form the borders between Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon when a convoy of cartel gunmen rushed at the military convoy continuously firing at the Mexican marines who returned fire without taking any casualties. The gunmen then fled the area, however about 2 miles from the location of the initial attack, authorities found the bodies of seven cartel gunmen.

One of the gunmen was identified as Miguel Angel Lopez Zarate from Sinaloa and Jose Luis Luna Garza from the nearby town of Paras, Nuevo Leon.

Just one day after that fierce gun battle near Nueva Ciudad Guerrero, Tamaulipas police officers with Fuerza Tamaulipas killed two cartel gunmen in the rural city of Valle Hermoso.

The deceased gunmen were identified as 45-year-old Alexis Parajon Hernandez from Cuba, while the other gunman was identified as 26-year-old Alfredo Olvera Mendoza from Matamoros.

The shootout took place on sunday afternoon when the state police officers were patrolling near the Hidalgo neighborhood when they spotted a 2008 Jeep Cherokee that had three gunmen inside. The gunmen began to fire at the police officers while trying to flee the area, whoever authorities fought off the attack killing two of them while a third gunman managed to run away.

The nine gunmen killed over the weekend come just 8 days after as Breitbart Texas previously reported, nine Gulf Cartel gunmen were killed during a three hour firefight with Mexican authorities. The large scale gun battle was tied to the attempted capture of a top Gulf Cartel commander who continues to avoid authorities.

Ildefonso Ortiz is an award winning journalist with Breitbart Texas you can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook.